I recently went on holiday to Cuba. We decided to have an exploring type holiday for most of the time we were there and had a local guide on hand as a driver/guide which helped us gain an understanding of the country and people.

As many of you will be aware Cuba has a reputation for still having lots of old american cars on the road, this is because until recently they were not allowed to sell their car (or their house) and therefore had to look after them and keep them running and passing them down within their families. Our guide's father is still running a 1959 Vauxhall!

In Havana particuarly for every 10 cars there was probably 5 old american cars, 3 Ladas and 2 'modern' cars (still not completely up to date like you or I would think of as modern cars), outside of Havana the 'modern' cars were abit more common but equally there were other 'interesting modes of transport..

& so for some pictures

A typical view

Ladas were everywhere, even in stretch form

Walking down a side street, glance through a doorway & oh look a car museum!?!

In the centre of Havana, LOTS of old american cars with wannabe taxi drivers

& a train restoration yard.. no train tracks to be seen anywhere though.

The boy racer appears to be alive and well in Cuba..

just because its got a sticker saying it doesn't mean its fitted or that it is any good..

They are trying to restore some parts of old Havana, very very slowly..

some houses clearly had money, whereas others looked abit sad from the outside but were actually hidden gems if you got a peek inside the door

The interesting transport I promised (some serious debate going on over the donkey)

A fairly common street scene ... one of the cars was missing half its wheel nuts on just one side of the car (didn't dare look at the other side) & the other car had very little tread left on the tyres

One thing that was common all over Cuba was that almost every house was likely to be a shop of some sort, or a restaurant

even on the beach there were 'shops' & enterprising locals trying to make some cash..

Chicken man watching the world go by, saw 3 in one day in Trinidad (the town in Cuba not the island, they like to name their towns after other places in the world)

Yeah - we went a few years ago - split the holiday between beach part Varadero and Havana. Was amazed how many buildings still had that iconic Che Ghevara image on them. We also went to Ernest Hemingway's bar/cafe, A cigar factory and had a look in that museum in the centre with the Ghevara/Castro boat that they used in the 1960's. One thing that amazed me then was that they did not allow American passport holders to enter the country but Canadians were ok - and the currency they used was the American dollar - don't know if it hads changed now ?? TJ

They rely pretty heavily on the Americans for food imports now so have to really let them in but at Havana airport they come into a completely separate terminal & don't bother trying to take usd to convert or American associated credit cards as they will be turned away, stirling or euros.

We spent our first few nights in Havana & last few at varadero, in between we did playa giron (bay of pigs), cienfuegos, & Trinidad with day trips to vinales (cigar fields) & Santa Clara (ches mausoleum)

Some of the old American cars were actually in reasonable nick Kev but very often when you looked closer there was a hole in a wing or sill, it was painted with dulux or was missing window winders/functioning door handles